As Omega Point prepares to launch an all-out assault on The Reestablishment soldiers stationed in Sector 45, Adam's focus couldn't be further from the upcoming battle. He's reeling from his breakup with Juliette, scared for his best friend's life, and as concerned as ever for his brother James's safety. And just as Adam begins to wonder if this life is really for him, the alarms sound. It's time for war.

On the battlefield, it seems like the odds are in their favor—but taking down Warner, Adam's newly discovered half brother, won't be that easy. The Reestablishment can't tolerate a rebellion, and they'll do anything to crush the resistance . . . including killing everyone Adam has ever cared about.

My thoughts

This novella was very hard to rate for me. While I still enjoyed it because it’s the Shatter Me world, Adam pissed me off. Really pissed me off.

If I hadn’t been Team Warner already after Destroy Me and Unravel Me, this would have firmly secured me there 100%. I can definitely foresee lots of former Team Adam people changing sides, because I don’t know how anyone could stand to be Team Adam after this. Going into this novella, I truly thought that reading Adam’s POV would make me understand him and like him more…instead, it just made me hate him. I have to wonder: Was that Tahereh’s intention? (DOES THIS MEAN SHE WILL END UP WITH WARNER?!)

I hated the way Adam treated Juliette. HATED. It made me SO angry! He kept treating her like a weak, useless female, and treated her like she was damaged and fragile. (Whereas Warner sees her strength.) His inner thoughts and the way he regarded her absolutely disgusted me. He may think he loves her, but it’s not pure love. The differences between the way Adam saw Juliette and the way Warner saw her were astounding! Adam’s constant belittling comments – and I do mean constant, he was pissing me off on practically every page – about Juliette’s supposed weakness made my blood boil.

It’s not good to make her think that she can do this kind of thing when really, it’ll probably just get her killed. She’s not a soldier; she doesn’t know how to fight; and she has no idea how to use her powers, not really, which makes things even worse. It’s basically like giving a toddler a stick of dynamite and telling him to walk into a fire.

She looks different – a little scary, even. Somehow, that worries me even more.

So now she’s scary? When she was just weak a minute ago?

Of course she has no idea what’s happening – why would she? The smart thing would be to hide her somewhere. Keep her safe. Out of danger. A weak link can bring everything down with it.

F*cking chauvinist pig.

I knew this would happen.I knew she never should’ve come with us. I knew she should’ve stayed behind. She’s not built for this – she’s not strong enough to be on the battlefield.

He kept expecting her to screw up, never gave her any credit; I think if he’d just supported her and encouraged her and had faith in her, that things could have gone differently. Even when she shot someone from behind, all he had to say was “not bad.” Not bad? That’s it? She just saved your ass, dude. Give her some credit!

He freaked out when Juliette disappeared, then, he freaked out because James was in danger (which is understandable but still) and immediately forgot all about Juliette. When Kenji offers to look for Juliette, Adam says:

“Juliette will be fine. She’s not in any immediate danger here – Warner isn’t going to hurt her.”

Um, 10 pages ago you called him a psychopath and said he wasn’t even human! You’re going to trust someone you supposedly love in the hands of someone you view as a psychopathic monster? Seriously? I don’t understand why he couldn’t just get James himself and have Kenji go after Juliette. He’s an idiot. Then Kenji says:

“Aren’t you in love with this girl? Where’s the fire under your ass?”

THANK YOU, KENJI. At least someone has some damn sense! Then, when James is safe and Adam finally decides to do something, he says he “has a responsibility to Juliette.” That she needs him. Is that really the only reason you want to save her? Because you feel obligated and think she’s weak? Not because you love her, of course. *rolls eyes*

I love Juliette. I really do. [Do you? Really? Could have fooled me.] I want to help her and support her and be there for her. I want us to have a future together. But sometimes I wonder if it’s ever going to happen.

With the way that you view her? Probably not. Because you’re an asshat and she deserves better. Go play in traffic. Even the way he thought about Kenji annoyed me:

I can hear Kenji cursing under his breath. He’s got a soft stomach, that guy. He was always soft when it came to this stuff. I met him for the first time on one of our rounds; when we came back, Kenji lost his shit. Just completely lost it. They put him in solitary confinement for a little while, and after that he kept his emotional breakdowns to a minimum. Most soldiers know better than to complain out loud. I should’ve known then that Kenji wasn’t really one of us.

High and mighty much? God forbid anyone have any humanity. In a way I kind of understand, but he’s your friend for crying out loud! Argh.

I might walk onto that battlefield with a beating heart and be dragged off with a dead one.

I must say, this novella really captured the horrors of war! Also, I loved Kenji in the previous books, but I was kinda disappointed in him in this one. He blames Juliette for what happened and it wasn’t even her fault! And the way he brushed her off like he was afraid of her hurt her feelings. It annoyed me.

Tahereh does a fabulous job at making all of her character’s voices unique! There’s a clear difference between Juliette, Warner, and Adam when reading each of them. I’m highly impressed by how well she does bringing each of her characters to life! I’m also amazed at how well she can play my emotions: While Warner’s POV melted me into an (embarrassing) giggling schoolgirl, Adam’s made me extremely angry. While I kind of hated reading it because it was Adam, I still gave it a high rating because I have to give her credit for writing a dislikable character so well!

But seriously, I can’t stand Adam after reading Fracture Me. Not just mild dislike, but blatant burning hatred. To the point that I almost kinda sorta hope something bad happens to him in Ignite Me (*coughs* too vindictive?). You should have seen my book notes on my Kindle for this. There was lots of angry caps and talk about bad things I wanted to do to Adam’s eyeballs and manparts!

21 responses to “Review: Fracture Me by Tahereh Mafi”

I am so in love with this review. I knew there was a reason I didn’t want to read this! Every since reading Destroy Me I’ve been wholeheartedly Team Warner–plus Adam was always boring–so I just didn’t feel the need to pick it up. God, I hope Tahereh is setting us up for Juliette to end up with Warner or I might throw a book across the room. Nonetheless, I love your review and I love the letter at the beginning. :)

ugh I’m definitely skipping this one because I saw someone who was Team Adam rant about how poor of a character he was in this book. I feel like Tahereh is trying to sway everyone towards going Team Warner, which is kind of totally stupid because even though I’m Team Adam I really hate how she’s choosing to get rid of the other side of the triangle. Especially if he acts nothing like he did in the first book, and gets progressively more annoying and weak. >.< Fantastic review, Jessi! <33

Well from reading Shatter Me I already know I don’t like Adam, but I don’t know about Warner yet. Course I have yet to read Destroy Me and Unravel Me. Haha. I do have UM on my kindle I just haven’t found $3 to spare for the novella yet haha. #lameInkyexcuse

I’m glad this solidified your hate of Adam even more?
Great review! You should write letters or loathing more often.
XOXO, Inky

More annoying than Nicki Minaj???? *dies of laughter* I don’t think I’ll be reading this one anymore. Because, ugh- Adam is lame. I just wanna skip to whatever part of the series has more of Warner shirtless in it, honestly. *stays hopeful for Ignite Me*

Amen to that!
Adam royally pissed me off as well. He didn’t even bother to go after the girl he claims he loves! I mean, she doesn’t even cross his mind, and then he claims he does love her? That’s not right.
UGH! Adam should watch his back… because one wrong move and I’ll gut him *I do realize I cant really do so, but still, it feels good to say haha*

RIGHT? I mean, I totally understand that his brother is more important. But, someone else could have gone after her! And he totally forgot about her until Kenji reminded him…
Haha I’ll join you in the gutting ;D

YES TO ALL OF THIS. Ugh. I never really loved Adam because he always sort of came across to me as a toned-down version of what the novella reveals – he’s always wanted to wrap Juliette in tissue paper and hide her away in the attic where no one can hurt her — which just implies that he has no faith in her strength or abilities. The novella just went right ahead and proved this 100%.

I have to say I’m also really impressed with what Tahereh has done with these novellas. Warner’s novella totally changed my opinion of him after Shatter Me, and now Adam’s (while not 100% unpredictable for me) must’ve really surprised a LOT of Team Adam people. I’ve seen some very upset reviews over Fracture Me, and low ratings because people don’t like what Tahereh is revealing about Adam… But you gotta give her credit for flipping the normal expectations on their head. LOVE that.

EXACTLY! And same here! I wasn’t Team Adam after Shatter Me, but I wasn’t Team Warner either. I actually thought he was kind of creepy and sadistic in the first book! It wasn’t until I read from his POV that I understood him and shifted into Team Warner territory.
Yeah, I noticed that his novella got much lower ratings…I think it’s because Adam is so dislikable. I love that too!

I love this series and have always been Team Adam but I’ve heard what an ass he was in this book. I’m not a fan of Warner though so I’m really eager to read Ignite Me to see how it all pans out. I think I might skip this one.

So I am reading Shatter Me AGAIN because I have ‘book hang overitez’ and because I want to see the characters point of views. I am not Team Adam or Team Warner, BUT I have to say: Adam is an jackass in ALL ways possible and Warner is quiet greedy for power. (Maybe I have to read Unravel Me?) Just a random question, how old are you. Because I am just 11